Fall 2015

From the window of a small plane, the area north of Canyonlands National Park appears as a vast, rolling expanse of white, tan and red sandstone, grayish-green fields of rice grass, sage and blackbrush, punctuated with towering buttes, and incised with deep canyons that fall towards the Green River. An asphalt ribbon, Utah’s Scenic Byway […]

I lied on my life insurance policy. The reason, is that mountain sports are dangerous, and I participate in almost all of them. So when I filled out the insurance application and got to the page of questions about my hobbies, I feared the truth would lead to expensive premiums at best. At worst, my […]

My nerves were running low after struggling up a long, dirty, unprotected chimney and I looked up to see the pitch finish with a short but steep overhanging off-width. I had already used up all my wide gear, but luckily I was able to find some holds to make the climbing more manageable. Reaching […]

The Acquired Taste of New Routes in Indian Creek “Once in a while you get shown the light In the strangest of places if you look at it right” –Scarlet Begonias The Grateful Dead “I just want one first ascent,” I told my best friend Two Tent Timmy, while we stood […]

Six days, 1,170 miles, two South Africans, and one Cruise America RV The RV, or recreational vehicle, is a symbol of the American Dream. Today we know them as camper vans and solar-powered adventure-mobiles—the rigs that make dreams possible. But when we were growing up, we had clunky, ginormous, two-wheel-drive vehicles […]

A Fall Escape to the Beauty of Canyon Country Seeing the sign that reads “I-70 one mile ahead” caught my attention. What? We were already down to Interstate 70? My wife, Louise, and I had literally driven south on Highway 6 to the goods of canyon country a 100 times or so before. […]

From deep religious symbolism to mere graffiti, their meaning has been the subject of endless speculation. Images have been reproduced as fine art, on tacky refrigerator magnets, car window stickers and plastic light switch covers in faux-adobe, southwestern condos. Ubiquitously scattered on cliff faces throughout the desert southwest, the chipped and painted figures of […]